Narnia
by The Threat
Summary: Continuing on where I left off with 'To The Next Realm', this story will provide more details as to what's going on in this multiverse.
1. Chapter 1

Note: I've only seen the "Narnia" movies, so whatever you read here is based on the movies, not the books.

* * *

Though I had seen this before, I was in the safety and comfort of a school bus when that happened. This time, it was just me, having nothing to hold on to, except for one so-called timer, and one dagger that... that belonged to someone who connected to me (because I don't know what else to call her). So tumbling through what looks like a bottomless pit, that goes in every direction imaginable and yet seems to be going nowhere at all, wasn't as easy a ride as it was the first time I experienced it. Then again, that time, I bumped my head, so I missed most of the trip. This time, I had nothing to bump myself against, so I kept witnessing the entire journey. I could close my eyes if I wanted to, but that didn't make the trip go any faster. It was almost as if stepping through that portal was a mistake. But what other option did I have? I could either stay behind on a space ship that I didn't know how to control, and one littered with dead people. Or I could take my chances and step through the portal that this timer opened up to me. I had to choose quickly, and so I did. And it was only after I stepped through that I had the chance to think I might regret this.

After quite some time (no idea how much, since I lost all sense of it after stepping through), a hole opened up before me, and I fell through that one. I landed on dry mud, immediately understanding the meaning behind "biting the dust". But that thought did not cross my mind at the time. Partly, I was relieved to finally be out of that... tunnel. But another part of me was still in a panic. Did I arrive back home? Back in my own world? And if yes, where on my own world was I? For that matter, how do I explain to others where I was? Where everyone else was? What happened to them? What happened to... me, before I escaped? Unsure of what to do next, I gathered myself up, picked up the timer and dagger that I dropped, and sat myself against a tree. There, I could take a better look at where I was. It was a forest, and a rather thick one. All the trees were grown at random spots, so it means this was a natural one. It was dark, but clearly the moon shone bright enough through the tree leaves, so I could still see something. I could even see a shadow moving behind a tree. I started to breath heavily as I saw it. Was this a dangerous animal that lived here? I could not know. I dared not move, thinking I might draw its attention. I couldn't do that for very long, as a rustling next to me spooked me.

"Hey there!" whatever caused the rustling spoke to me, "I'm Erich. What's your name?"

A rabbit, speaking to me, calling itself Erich, and asking me for my name. Will the surreality of... all this, ever end? I tried speaking back to him, but this new appearance made me even more unsure about... pretty much everything. It was like everything that had happened to me made me forget how to talk. But even if I could talk, I heard a creeping sound in front of me. I turned to look, and before me was what looked like an insect. One that was about a quarter the size of me, completely black, with yellow eyes, and only four limbs. The only reason I even thought it was an insect was because of its antennae. And where he was, several more appeared.

"Don't worry, I'll get help." the rabbit (Erich) said, and started hopping away.

It didn't hop very far, as some... thing else caught it. It looked like a man in a gray jumpsuit, except it had no hair, a large head (so large, it somehow made his eyes less visible), and large teeth. With those large teeth, it bit Erich's head off. He made one loud squeal just before his head was inside that monster-man's mouth. I tried getting up to run, but those shadow-bugs had surrounded me. There was nowhere I could go. I felt that monster grab my shoulders with its strong hands, just before I felt something wet splashing over my back, after which its grip loosened. Those shadows backed away, as I heard a loud thud. From behind the bugs, a man appeared. He didn't look much older than me, wore dark pants, with brown boots, a lighter brown jacket, a blue shirt and a red scarf. He held a log, with which he crushed the bugs before me. As he did so, somebody jumped from behind me. An Asian girl, who looked younger than me, wearing what looked like a sailor outfit, and wielding a long sword, which had fresh blood staining it. With that sword, she dealt with the shadows, just like that other person did. As they were fighting, I turned to look. I saw that monster, lying behind me, but its head, for some reason, was invisible. This didn't make sense to me, until I took a closer look. It wasn't invisible, it was just gone.

"Are you alright?" an older voice spoke to me, resting his hand on my shoulder.

Spooked, I turned to look at him. He was old, about forty years old, maybe. He was leaning on a cane, obviously having trouble walking. I turned to look at the other two. The sword-girl had just killed the last shadow, when that red scarf-guy came up to us.

"Don't worry, we're friends." he said.

"So you keep saying." the girl sneered.

"My name is Lawrence." the old man said, "Can you tell me yours?"

To answer his question literally, no I couldn't. For some reason, I could only remember what happened to me in the past couple of hours. It was like the life I had before all this didn't happen. And in those couple of hours, I did not have a chance to tell anyone my name. I therefor couldn't remember what it was. Even if I could bring myself to talk, I can answer him.

"What's wrong with him, Dr. Gordon?" the guy asked.

"He's in shock, Merlin." the one who calls himself Lawrence answered.

"You don't say." the girl replied.

"He must've gone through some serious shit before he got here." Lawrence said.

"What's that thing?" the other guy (Merlin) asked, pointing to the timer.

Lawrence looked at it: "Whatever it is, it looks like we have... two days for it to... what does it do?"

I looked at the timer myself. It read "01:15:32:47" and counting down. I could only assume this means that another portal will open when the timer's run down.

"Will it explode?" Merlin asked.

"It doesn't look like any explosive I've ever seen." the girl answered.

"Yeah well, they could built them differently in his world, Saya." Lawrence said, "Lemme look at that."

He reached for the timer. Although going through that tunnel was a horrible experience, it was only because there seemed to be no end to it. So now that I knew there will be one, I knew it was my only way out, if I needed one. So I held on to it, tightly, not letting Lawrence have it.

"Come on, don't be shy."

"That answers that." the girl (Saya) said, "If it was a bomb, he'd want to get rid of it."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Merlin said.

Lawrence still looked me up and down: "Well, I can't find anything physically wrong with him. I better let Sookie talk to him."

What's a Sookie, I wondered.


	2. Chapter 2

The three of them escorted me through the woods. Needless to say that every sound I heard scared me. It may have been just an animal that I couldn't see, but I always thought it was one of those monsters I saw. Either the ones that Saya and Merlin dealt with, or the ones that I met before arriving here. In any case, my trip wasn't a happy one, even if I wasn't alone.

"Easily frightened?" Saya asked me.

"Saya, you really should go easy on him." Lawrence told her.

I looked at her. She made a sneer at Lawrence, before looking at me. She had that look in her eyes, I couldn't quite place it. It wasn't really... evil, but neither did it seem very good. It was like she hated me, and yet had no desire to use her sword against me.

"Don't worry." Merlin assured me, "She may seem like..."

"Don't talk for me." Saya interrupted him, "How would you like it if I told others what I think you're like?"

"What do you think I'm like?" she seemed to have piqued Merlin's curiosity.

"Be careful." Lawrence said, "You wouldn't want to be on Aslan's bad side."

Merlin smiled awkwardly, while Saya growled. Who is this Aslan? For that matter, this is the second name they mentioned, after Sookie. Who are these people and what makes them so special?

After a short walk, we arrived at what looked like a camp. Several tents were set up, many torches enlightening the entire area, letting me see people of many different shapes and sizes walking around. One of them was a man, wearing what looked like combat-gear, and carrying around a helmet, which looked like one of those hats that I've seen pharaohs wear. I saw what looked like a man, but he didn't wear any clothes. Not that he needed any, as he was so hairy, that all his hair pretty much covered him (even his eyes, making me wonder how he could even see the person he was talking to). Opposite him stood what looked like a bull, that stood on its hind legs, and talked to the hairy man (he said something to the hairy man about being sorry that he lost his captain and his... falcon). There was one short brown... thing, that had no legs, only feet, and one very long neck, playing cards with three other people, all of which were of roughly the same size. One of them was another hairy thing, that had a more yellow-ish color, a long snout, with only two visible teeth. The second one looked like a yellow metal box, with two arms, and binoculars for a head. Even at that moment, I needed some time to realize this one was really a robot. And the last person looked more like a human, and though he was the size of a child, he had every attributes of an adult. He was even boasting about how "Lannisters" are known to be rich). He stopped boasting as soon as we walked by them. What was curious about all this was that all these people were looking at us as we walked into the camp. At first, I thought they were looking at me, because they had never seen me before, but I soon noticed they were looking at Saya and Merlin. Not sure why, but none of them seemed very happy about theme being there.

"You two better go back to your tents." Lawrence told them.

Saya said nor did anything. She just left us, and Merlin followed.

"Welcome to Refugee camp." Merlin gave me a warm welcome, though I didn't feel much better after that.

Lawrence stopped at a tent, which had a red cross beside its entrance. There, there was a young man, slightly older than me, wearing nothing but his underwear, yet completely covered in blood (and because I couldn't see any wound on him, I decided the blood wasn't his). He was being examined by a woman, who was wearing a white coat, looking more like a doctor than Lawrence did.

"Dr. Sperelakis." Lawrence said to her.

"Yes?" the woman turned to look at him, and spotted me, "You got a new patient?"

Odd, she seemed to be the only who noticed me.

"Not for you." Lawrence replied, "His problem is mental."

"I see." she almost sounded disappointed, "Well, Stackhouse isn't here at the moment."

"Any idea when she'll be back?" Lawrence asked.

"When she's seeing Aslan... you never know." she answered.

What did she mean by that? I started to think that Sookie and Aslan were a couple.

"Of course." Lawrence said, "At least, can he stay here until she gets back?"

"Sure." she replied.

"Alright. I'll go do my rounds." Lawrence said.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest?" she suggested.

"And risk lives being lost?" he questioned, "Of course not."

With that he left. Doing so made me see why she suggested he should rest. There was this weird way in which he walked. I can only describe it as one foot moving naturally, while the other... didn't. It mustn't be easy to walk on a foot like that, so of course he'd get tired more easily than others.

"Hello, my name's Thea." the woman told me.

At least that name was easier to remember than Sperelakis, I thought to myself. She stuck out her hand, hastily, almost as if she only just remembered she had to do that. I just looked at the hand, then back at her, and I couldn't bring myself to shake hers.

"You don't want to shake hands?" she asked, "So you're not one of the "normals"."

Normals? Even though I probably made my face look puzzled, she either didn't notice or cared.

"People like you or me are a rarity here." she said, "Even Kazan here only just arrived, and he's worse off than you or me."

I guessed that by Kazan, she meant that man who was covered in blood. And seeing as how he kept making this weird hand gesture, and patted his own head the whole time, I could see what she meant.

"Don't be so negative." a voice spoke... with an odd, and dare I say horrible accent.

I turned to look at whoever spoke. It was young woman, twice as old as me, blond, white shirt and black shorts.

"Hello." she said to me, "You new in town?"

"This isn't exactly a town." Thea said.

"I didn't ask you." she retorted.

This sudden shift in tone caused Kazan to start wailing. Thea started to calm him down, while this blond woman talked to me.

"Never mind her. She's not exactly... like the rest of us."

In a camp where you have talking animals, people with swords, robots, and who knows what else, what could it possibly mean if someone isn't like the rest of us?

"I mean she doesn't think and act like us." she answered.

My eyes opened wide. I didn't say anything, yet she knew exactly what question I thought about and how to answer it. I was reminded this happened to me before. And given what happened to me then... everything that happened to me in the past couple of hours was replayed inside my head. It all became too much for me, eventually it all... just became dark.


	3. Chapter 3

The smell of grass, mud and dusty rags were the first things I sensed when I woke up. I remember wondering whether I was out in a field, just when it slowly began flooding back to me. I was still at that camp. And based on the softness of the ground I was lying on, I thought I had been put on a bed, and was inside somewhere. I heard someone breathing next to me. Who was with me? Whoever it was, I heard someone dragging himself to where I was lying.

"Hey..." he whispered, but not to me, "Miss Stackhouse?"

I heard her respond, moaning. So she was with me? Doing what?

"I... I um..." she began to respond, but couldn't open a sentence.

"You tried to probe his mind, and fell asleep on it." the other person (whose voice I then recognized to belong to Lawrence's).

"Er... yeah, must be it." the woman (Sookie, judging from the accent) replied, "He was hard to keep track of."

"How hard?"

"I thought hearing Doctor Thea's thoughts were tiring, because she keeps thinking of too many things at once. But our newcomer..."

"What's wrong?"

"It's like watching TV and they keep showing reruns." she explained, "He keeps replaying the same things again and again."

"Must have something to do with his shock." Lawrence said, "What happened?"

"He was taken." she explained, "Him and all his classmates."

"Like many of us were." Lawrence replied.

"And he was about to be tested, but some people saved him."

"They did?" Lawrence sounded pleased to hear that, "Good! That must mean that people are fighting back."

"Not really." she said, "They're all dead. They died saving him."

Lawrence said nothing, but I can picture the look that must have appeared on his face.

"That's what he keeps rerunning in his head." Sookie added, "Not just his friends dying, but one of his friends turning against him, forcing him to kill the friend. It's all he keeps thinking about. Again and again."

After a long pause, Lawrence took a deep breath: "Anything else? Who these people were? How he escaped?"

Sookie didn't say anything, so Lawrence asked more questions: "Where he's from? What that machine is he held on to? What he knows about the enemy?"

"He actually knows less than us." Sookie answered.

In a way, that was only good news. If my thoughts were this repetitive, then I wouldn't be able to tip her off the way I had tipped off some of the soldiers back at the base. I could think of whatever I wanted, and she'd be too distracted by my other thoughts.

"So chances are that he doesn't even know what that device is?" Lawrence asked.

"I dunno." Sookie replied, "But that machine isn't what bothers me."

"Then what is?"

"That knife he had." she answered, "He seems to hold it as dearly as I would a cross."

Lawrence scoffed: "Wonder how ol' Jigsaw would feel about that."

"Jigsaw?" the name meant as much to Sookie as it did to me.

"He's... a kind of mentor." he sounded as if he made that up there and then, "In any case, both are locked in a safe somewhere, so they won't harm anyone."

A safe? So not only have I lost my only way out, but the one thing I had to remember... her... it was kept away from me, and I didn't know where.

"Are you awake?" Sookie asked... me!

Fear ran through my entire body. The one time I stopped thinking about what happened, and it had to be a moment like this.

"Good." Lawrence said, "Now we can ask him directly."

I didn't want to open my eyes, but I knew I had no choice. I opened them, and saw Lawrence leaning over me, laying his cane next to me, and Sookie behind him watching.

"So Miss Stackhouse just told me you've experienced quite a trauma before you got here."

Wherever "here" may be. Nobody told me that yet. If anything, the more they bantered about, the more I feared I that I wouldn't get my things back.

"Why do you keep thinking about those things you held?" Sookie asked, "Why are they so important?"

I tried holding on to thinking about them, so Sookie wouldn't hear the plan I had in mind. She didn't see how I thought about grabbing the cane and knocking Lawrence out. Which I did, much to her horror.

As I stood there, ready to swing the cane at her, she tried to talk me into putting it down: "Stay calm, we're not gonna hurt you."

I was reminded of a woman in a red dress. She made it clear to me that she wanted to offer me help, and yet she would act like a wild animal if I tried to escape. Somehow, someone like Sookie, who not only said she wanted to help, but was also capable of hearing my thoughts (like the people at that base could), it gave me every reason to distrust everything she said. I raised the cane to hit her, but she blocked it with both of her hands. What she didn't realize was that by using both of her hands on the cane, she had nothing to defend herself with when I made a fist with my hand and punched her face.

"What's going on in there?" I heard Thea ask from outside.

I had to do some quick thinking. I dropped the cane, and ran to the other side of this tent.

Since this tent was made up of rags, it was easy for me to crawl my way out. Once outside, I ran into what looked like a cheetah. It looked at me, questioningly. He would probably want to know what was happening, but I couldn't answer him. And last thing I wanted, was to anger an animal that can run faster than a car. I ran as fast as I could, not looking back, not even wondering if that cheetah had decided to follow me or not. But even so, the entire camp was a maze. I could run past one tent, and find myself an entire new field of tents. And of course, one person running through camp, in a panic as I was, people were bound to notice. All sorts of people were staring at me. All of them either with questions in their mind, or with a sort of contempt, because my running somehow disturbed them. Having all their eyes on me, I couldn't focus. I didn't know what to do. My running started to slow down, until I completely stopped.

"There you are!" someone called at me.

I turned to look at who was talking, and I recognized him almost immediately. He was that short man who was playing cards with three others of his own size.

"I was wondering where you've been." that man said to me, as if he knew me.

"You know this boy?" one of the people (a bear, of all things) asked.

"Of course I do." the short man said, "I sent him on an errand, and told him to report back as fast as possible. But you could not find me anywhere, eh?"

I didn't know who this man was or why he was helping me. Either way, at the time I thought it best to play along, so I nodded.

"See? All is well." he said.

Many of them nodded, others shrugged, the rest mumbled things to one another. But whatever they were doing, it led them to turn away from us, and paid no attention to us any further.

"Come along, dear boy." the man said, "We have much to discuss."

You mean YOU have much to discuss, as I still didn't have the will to speak.

Once we were out of earshot, the little man pulled my arm, forcing me down.

"Subtlety is not your strong point, that much I witnessed." he whispered.

I looked at him, questioningly.

"Do you have any idea where you are?" he asked, and continued after I shook my head, "You're in Narnia."

The name still didn't ring a bell to me, so he added: "It's supposed to be a utopia, guarded by the "great" Aslan."

That was the third time someone said that name, but the first time it was said with such a hateful tone.

"These people aren't used to strangers." the man said, "If any one of them behaves even a little odd, they won't hesitate to tell their guardian."

After all that I had seen, what does "odd" mean to these people?

"Now follow me." he said.


	4. Chapter 4

I did exactly as he told me, and before I knew it, I was at the very edge of the camp. It made me wonder what was wrong with my sense of direction, especially since this little man made it seem so easy. But I couldn't think about that too long, as he was still going, leading me into the woods. After a little while, we arrived at a dark cave. Normally, I would be afraid to enter the cave without being able to see anything, but he just went on inside, making it clear to me there is no immediate danger. Or is there? After all, while I didn't know him very well, he didn't seem like the type who would help others without any reason.

"I would light a torch, but that would give us away." the little man whispered, "Hope you don't mind walking in the dark."

I had to keep telling myself that if wanted me dead, he'd have done it already. Sure, I'm twice as big as him, but I've seen little people in my world who were stronger than they looked. So with all this in mind, I followed him.

What I didn't expect to see, was that as we went deeper into the cave, it didn't get darker at all. It was as if there was a light at the very end of the cave. Torch-light, but light none the less. So that was why the little man was so confident he wouldn't get lost, because he knew he could follow that light. Which we did, and we arrived at... what looked like the remains of a temple. In the middle, there was what looked like an old stone table, that was somehow broken.

"Tyrion! What kept you?" I recognized Merlin's voice.

I looked around the room. Merlin sat at the left side of that table, with Saya standing behind him, not happy about me being there.

"What's he doing here?" she asked.

"I found him running through the camp grounds." the little man (apparently called Tyrion) answered, "Fleeing, like he was in distress. From that I deduced he was in trouble."

"Not so surprising." Merlin replied, "Remember how they reacted when they saw you draw your sword?"

"They insulted me." Saya answered, "Called me descendant of Eve."

"I still don't understand why that should insult you." Tyrion replied.

Neither did I. Who is this Eve?

"Either way, they seem to be quick to judge people around here." Merlin said, "I can imagine a similar thing happened to him."

That wasn't at all what happened, but for the moment, so I thought, I should let them think that.

"I don't know if that's what happened." Tyrion said, "But you're right to think we can't trust anyone here."

At least they shared those sentiments with me.

"So..." Merlin marched up to me, "Who are you, then?"

Just like before, I couldn't remember my name, and my voice wouldn't let me tell him that.

"Oh, that's right, you can't talk." Merlin remembered, "Do you know where you are then?"

"I already told him that this is Narnia." Tyrion told him.

"Why you're here, then?" Merlin asked.

I shrugged. I just went where that portal took me.

"He doesn't know anything." Saya said, annoyed.

"If that is so..." Tyrion suggested, "... maybe we should enlighten him."

"And tell him what? What you people have been guessing about for years?" Saya mocked, though she didn't crack a smile as she spoke.

"A guess is better than nothing." Merlin said, then turned to me, "Are you ready to hear this?"

I sat down, not knowing how else to react to what he said.

"Alright." Merlin said, "This is what we've been able to piece together from what the refugees have been telling us..."

The story that Merlin and his friends told me was... incredible, to use exactly the right word. Years ago, there was this a race of people, who had discovered a way to travel from one universe into another. What this race was, they couldn't agree upon. They were either ape-like beings, or shadow-like ones (like the ones I saw when I first met Saya and Merlin). But in traveling to other worlds, they eventually bumped heads with other races. What happened then, differs from one race to another, from one universe to another. New wars were started, while some of these races began to work together. But one day a man appeared. This man, somehow, made all these different races work together, and in doing so, they became one huge army that started to conquer every and all realities. But whoever this man is or was, he was stopped by one other man, seventeen years ago. And for a time, peace was returning to all these different worlds. Until just a few months ago. Even though the man who united them was gone, his army still lived, and continued what he started.

"From every world they visited, at least one person would eventually make it here." Merlin said, "So a refugee camp was set up to take care of these people."

"And it is unfortunate that it should be here." Tyrion said, "Because this world is protected by Aslan."

So if Aslan (whoever he is, whatever he is) protected this world, why would that be a bad thing? I can only imagine how puzzled I looked when that thought crossed my mind.

"That other man, the "hero" who stopped the army before, nobody knows who he is." Tyrion explained.

"If he's even real." Saya said.

"Several people have had ideas of who this man might be." Tyrion continued, "Either someone named Kal-El, a robot named Prime, a god named Thor, some Doctor of sorts... even the locals here think it was Aslan. Everyone has their own hero, who they think is behind it all."

"But because they think someone saved them, they believe he will come back to save them again, so they will just sit down and do nothing." Saya explained.

"And what's worse is that most of these people have never even met their own hero." Tyrion added, "But they have seen Aslan. They have seen what he can do, what effect he has on people, and they heard stories about what he's done for the people in the past."

So in short, they feared that the people would become too reliant on this Aslan.

"I still don't understand why they think Aslan is so great, though." Merlin said, "They said he sacrificed himself for someone else's crime, and because of this selfless act, he was allowed to live again. But... from what they told me, it sounded like he knew he'd come back from the dead. So how was that a sacrifice?"

I began to understand why they were meeting in secret. If Aslan is admired as a hero among these people, they wouldn't want to hear them talk the way these three do about him.

"I can see you understand the situation we're facing here." Tyrion told me, "We can use all the assistance that we can find."

"Not sure how a mute can help us." Saya remarked.

Maybe I couldn't help them, but they could me. They trusted me enough to tell me their secret, maybe I should trust them with mine. I picked up a rock and began drawing in the dirt beneath my feet.

"What are you doing?" Tyrion asked me.

I drew a rectangle, with numbers on one end, and a circle at the other.

"Saya, doesn't that look like that machine he was holding when we found him?" Merlin asked her.

"It does." she agreed.

Next to the drawing, I drew an arrow, and next to that I drew the same machine. Only this time, rather than drawing random numbers, I drew only zeroes.

"I think he's trying to tell us what happens when the timer turns to zero." Saya explained.

From that drawing, I drew two lines, leading to a circle, within which I drew a spiral.

"That looks like a portal." Merlin said.

"So that device opens portals?" Tyrion questioned, and I nodded.

"Good!" Saya exclaimed, "I hate just sitting here and do nothing."

"Agreed." Merlin said, "It's only a matter of time before that army finds us here. It's best if we go and stop them out there."

"I concur." Tyrion said, then turned to me, "Where is the device?"

I showed him my empty hands, telling him I didn't have it on me.

"You don't have it?" Merlin was surprised.

"They must have taken it from you when you fainted." Tyrion said.

I wondered how he knew that, but then I remember he was close by when that happened.

"Everything they think could be dangerous, they lock it in a safe somewhere." Saya said.

"Then we must find that safe, and get the device." Tyrion spoke.


End file.
